Monday Monday 1.21.2009

Hi Everyone,

Last year, I wrote 33 Monday Monday emails meaning publication occurred three out of every five weeks. Since I have a 63% track record when it comes to successful delivery, I don’t mind making you all suffer from my tardiness when a Monday comes and goes as it did this week. I do not have detailed records to show my punctuality, but I’m guessing that at least one of my faithful readers has kept tabs and could offer statistics on how often this note reaches your inbox on-time.

With the almost weekly tardiness apology complete, I’ll move on to more interesting topics in order to provide a detailed account of the past week’s activities. I left work last Thursday and made the 5.5 hour drive from Annapolis to the Pennsylvania house. Passing through Wilkes Barre, I met up with Kevin Lobdell and picked Maggie up at the airport. Kevin spent Friday and Saturday visiting with Maggie and me before heading back to Connecticut where he will finish his Graduate Work in Student Affairs this spring. Rounding out the Pennsylvania crew this weekend was Stephanie, Maddie, and Tim who all came up to enjoy some skiing during the holiday weekend.

Although Kevin is an avid skier, he decided to forgo the calling of Big Bear (the mountain’s name) citing the frigid temperature as not being worth the activity. Never one to spend much time outside during the winter, I agreed with Kevin and decided that the lodge’s bar could fulfill my fun quota for the day. So while Maggie and family were skiing down the mountain, Kevin and I enjoyed a refreshing pint in the warmth and comfort of the lodge.

We had a good time hanging out with Kevin and catching up, but unfortunately all three of us had different plans for Saturday evening that eventually necessitated a mass evacuation on Saturday afternoon. Since Lara (Maggie’s cousin) is getting married in Mexico at the end of the month, Maggie drove over to Buck County, Pennsylvania for a bachelorette party. At the same time, I got back in my car and took the four hour drive up to my family’s stomping grounds for my cousin’s 40th birthday party. We both enjoy spending time with family, so we didn’t mind making these short field trips to spend some quality time with the people we don’t see enough of.

My night ended calmly with an 11:30 bedtime, while Maggie stayed out until 3:30. Either way we were both back on the road at 8:00 the next morning. Maggie and I met up at the Milford Wal-Mart just over the Pennsylvania border after driving through all kinds of snow, and then we did the unspeakable - We drove all the way to South Carolina!! Essentially we were both in the car from 8:00AM to 1:30AM. Of course, we had a short layover at the Pennsylvania house and another short layover at the Harrisburg Pizza Hut where we tried the new whole wheat crust.

Under normal circumstances, we never would have considered making this drive, but since I work in the Greater Washington DC Metro Area. . . it was not a normal circumstance week. Because of the 2009 Presidential Inauguration, travel costs for the greater DC area skyrocketed, and my project decided to operate entirely remote this week. For convenience sake, I wanted to be home and if we didn’t do the drive on Sunday. . .getting home would have been a logistical nightmare.

Regardless of the extensive travel that it took to get here, I’m having a great time working from home, making a mess of the house, and watching TV all day while I compute away for the U.S. NAVY.

Happy MLK Day and Happy Inauguration,

Ryan

Total Car Time for Ryan = 26.5 Hours between Thursday and 1:30AM on Monday